noun #19,746

Meanings

  1. 1 tears
  2. 2 nasal mucus
  3. 3 snot (literary/classical)

Examples

Tā tòngkūliútì, huǐhèn bùyǐ.
He wept bitterly with tears streaming down, filled with remorse.
Háizi kū de tì lèi héngliú.
The child cried with tears and snot running everywhere.

Tips

register
is literary/formal. In modern spoken Chinese, 眼泪 (yǎnlèi) is used for tears and 鼻涕 (bítì) for nasal mucus. alone is bookish and found mostly in idioms like 痛哭流涕 (weeping bitterly).

Components

radical
shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Three-drops water radical on the left, side-form of — three abbreviated waves indexing all liquid characters. Here it stands for tears (and historically for nasal mucus, the original meaning before 鼻涕 narrowed it). Family of bodily liquids: sweat, tears, saliva, fluid.
phonetic
younger brother
Right side supplies the sound: dì → tì with d/t alternation. originally pictured cord wound around a stake in order — by extension 'sequence,' then 'younger sibling.' Same phonetic family: ordinal, ladder (stepwise), to shave. Faint semantic echo: tears tied to family, the weeping of younger siblings is a classical image of grief.

Stroke Order